'Empire of the Sun' novelist is dead at 78

LONDON – Writer J.G. Ballard, best known for the autobiographical novel “Empire of the Sun,” which drew on his childhood detention in a Japanese prison camp in China, died yesterday, his agent said. He was 78.

Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill “for several years” and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death.

Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 – an experience he drew on in the 1984 novel “Empire of The Sun,” later adapted as a film by U.S. director Steven Spielberg. The writer moved to Britain in 1946, where he lived until his death.

Ballard was sometimes controversial. His 1973 novel “Crash,” which explored contentious themes about people who derive pleasure from car accidents, was made into a film by David Cronenberg in 1996.

“Empire Of The Sun” told the story of a young boy living through Japanese occupation of Shanghai, detailing his struggle and complex emotions toward the invading forces. “I have – I won't say happy – not unpleasant memories of the camp. I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on, but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time!” Ballard once said of his childhood internment.

Born James Graham Ballard, the author was a sharp critic of modern politics who once mocked the West's search for “near mythical weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq, in the buildup to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Ballard focused heavily in his work on what he saw as the negative effect on mankind of advancing technology and rejected the belief that humans can constantly improve themselves. He often portrayed social and technological developments as adding to a sense of human worthlessness, rather than aiding the progression of mankind.

Ballard was educated at Cambridge University and served as a British Royal Air Force pilot before working as a writer.

Ballard married Helen Matthews in 1954. She died in 1964. He is survived by their three children.